The present invention relates to a centrifuge comprising at least one bucket for receiving the product to be centrifuged and a support that can be inserted into the bucket and is designed to receive microtiter plates, wherein the support comprises a base and lateral walls extending upwards from the base. Furthermore, the invention relates to a support that is used, for example, in a centrifuge.
Centrifuges of the aforementioned type are known from practical experience, exist in many different embodiments and sizes and are used, for example, in the separation of mixtures of materials with the help of the centrifugal force acting on the product. Centrifuges are known, for example as sedimentation centrifuges. This group of centrifuges also includes the bucket centrifuges, in which buckets, which can rotate about a horizontal axis, are suspended on a vertical shaft and are supported perpendicular to the rotational axis by the centrifugal force.
In bucket centrifuges, supports are used frequently, which are designed for receiving microtiter plates and are inserted for centrifugation into a bucket.
Known centrifuges are frequently involved in an automation process in such a way that the buckets of the centrifuges are loaded and unloaded automatically by means of electronically controllable manipulators. Due to this a high sample throughput can be achieved.
Known supports for microtiter plates comprise a substantially rectangular base and two lateral walls extending vertically from this base on two opposite sides. Between these lateral walls one or more microtiter plates can be then be arranged, if necessary, on top of one another in a sandwich-like manner. The entire arrangement made of support and microtiter plate or microtiter plates can then be provided by means of a manipulator into a bucket of the centrifuge.
The known supports are problematic in several respects. Firstly, very frequently a deflection at least of the upper end of both the lateral walls occurs during a centrifugation. This can lead to the used support being unusable after a brief application, thus requiring it to be replaced by a new support. Furthermore, due to its low form stability the known support does not enable a safe positioning of microtiter plates in the support during the centrifugation. In particular, in the case of a multi-layer design of micro-plates in the support, an unintentional slipping of a lower microtiter plate already inserted into the support can prevent a precisely aligned positioning of several microtiter plates on top of one another by means of an automatic manipulator. Thus a high and reliable sample throughput is not possible in an automatically loadable and unloadable centrifuge.
Furthermore, the manageability of the support with and without inserted microtiter plates is reduced due to its lack of form stability. Particularly in an automatic handling and positioning of the support, it is possible that the supports are not grasped properly and therefore are no longer moveable and positionable in the intended manner.
Finally, there is poor access to the microtiter plates inserted in the support in the region of the existing lateral walls due to the narrowness of the support. This prevents a safe manipulation of the microtiter plates arranged in the support.
Therefore an object of the present invention is to provide a centrifuge and a support of the aforementioned type, according to which a high sample throughput is enabled in an automated operation reliably and using simple means with regard to design.